Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Jeyhum Bayramov on Tuesday visited Ankara where he met with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan. It was reported that normalization of relations was high on the agenda of their meeting.
“Despite positive steps in the negotiation process, and the fact that there is agreement on a significant part of the draft treaty, there still remain territorial claims from Azerbaijan and Turkey cited in the Constitution of Armenia and a number of other legal aspects,” Bayramov said during a press conference following his meeting with Fidan, according to Azerbaijani media reports.
Elchin Amirbayov, a senior adviser to President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, echoed those sentiments and renewed Baku’s threats that without amendments to Armenia’s Constitution the signing of a peace treaty will not be possible.
“We are very close with Armenia to finalizing a peace agreement, but we need to ensure this peace is sustainable,” Amirbayov told the Korea Times daily. “The remaining obstacle is Armenia’s constitutional territorial claim on a part of Azerbaijan. Once that is resolved, we can move forward.”
During an interview with Azatutyun.am earlier this month, Amirbayov also said that Armenia’s Constitution “contains territorial claims from Azerbaijan.”
“We want to be reassured that the peace agreement is a kind of a solemn treaty that would render impossible any return to revanchism or to any territorial claims to Azerbaijan in the future as it had done in the past,” Amirbayov told Azatutyun.am. “Territorial claims against Azerbaijan that are embedded in the current Armenian Constitution continue to remain the main, and I would say pretty much the only, obstacle to further progress in the peace process.”
“It is unacceptable for us that Armenia is using delay tactics in the peace talks or for signing a peace treaty while strengthening its military capabilities and to start this story again,” the Azerbaijani official said, seemingly accusing Yerevan of preparing for another military conflict.
Bayramov’s visit to Ankara comes a week after President Vladimir Putin of Russia paid a state visit to Baku and offered Russia’s assistance in mediating the peace talks.
The Azerbaijani foreign minister welcomed Putin’s offer, which the Russian leader presented to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan last week.
Amirbayov, on the other hand, said in the interview with Korea Times that Azerbaijan does not want any third country to play a “direct role” in the peace process.
